Farina vents fury at FFA's late decision to ban striker

Dominic Bossi

SYDNEY FC coach Frank Farina has criticised Football Federation Australia over its last-minute decision to slap Joel Griffiths with a three-match ban, and slammed the process of the match review panel.

Farina vented his frustration in a post on his website, and criticised a perceived inconsistent approach after Griffiths was outed for an offensive comment made towards an official in the 89th minute of the Sky Blues' 3-1 loss to Melbourne Victory last weekend.

The suspension was handed down late on Friday evening, less than 24 hours before Sydney FC played Newcastle Jets, which Farina said disrupted his preparations.

''How could anyone hear what Joel Griffiths allegedly yelled out from the field of play?'' Farina posted.

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''I didn't. My mate Ange Postecoglou didn't. The fourth official didn't. And neither did the assistant referee - who, 28 minutes beforehand, had enough confidence in his own game to let the referee know he had missed an incident with Tiago that led to his second yellow card. In other words, the assistant ref was no shrinking violet.''

The incident was not raised by the referee, assistants or opponents and was not addressed until five days after the match and three days after the review panel holds its weekly meetings. The FFA were notified of Griffiths's action by an anonymous tip-off rather than going through the regular process of a referee's report, which Farina said had opened a ''massive can of worms''.

''Is FFA acting on an anonymous complaint? Does it mean that anyone can contact FFA about an incident they might have noticed in a match, to have FFA deal with it in their own unique way? When does a match end now? Monday when the [panel] meets? Five days later? Six days? Five years perhaps? If it's so open-ended, should clubs add to their competitive strategies by employing someone to review matches with the aim of getting an opposition's key player suspended?'' Farina said.

Sydney FC described the late penalty that cost them a win against the Jets as a ''sucker punch'', but are content picking up an away point that has kept them in touch with the top six. Blake Powell thought he had given the Sky Blues a vital win with their second goal on Saturday, only for it to be cancelled it out by a last-minute Ryan Griffiths spot-kick.

Combined with a straight red for captain Terry McFlynn for a handball to concede the penalty, it was a painful way to end the match for Powell, but he said the makeshift Sydney team would have taken a point before the start of the match.

''It did [hurt], we scored early on in the second half, we held on and for them to grab that goal - especially as a penalty it was a bit disappointing - but we'll take the point and move on to next week,'' Powell said. ''Everyone was obviously disappointed that we dropped the goal in the last couple of minutes. Everyone was staying positive. We've got two home games and we've got a pretty good record playing at home so we're looking forward to it.''

Powell was the late replacement for Griffiths, and played a full 90 minutes, partnering Alessandro Del Piero in attack for the first time in his career.

The young forward followed up a spilt Ali Abbas shot to fire into an open net. The finish was simple, but Powell said it was difficult to remain onside during the counter-attack.

''When it hit the back of the net, I looked straight at the linesman to see if the flag went up,'' Powell said. ''I was just concentrating on staying onside. When the ball rolled to me, it was weird because I hadn't scored in so long because I forgot what the feeling would be like, but it was a good feeling.''